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178 of 365 is a #boat ride in #Inkscape

Boat ride
Boat ride

I had a few proper graphic design courses in college, but decided during the first class that I was not cut out for graphic design. This had mostly to do with an exercise involving the abstraction of an idea in lines. I was repeatedly reminded that I was sloppy, uncertain of the Gestalt concepts, and mostly belonged in the fine arts, where sloppiness was not only allowed but expected. As a teacher, the guy was fail. With Inkscape, I have to work to be sloppy, which is fine with me. This is exactly the kind of exercise I failed at in the class — using lines to create an illusion of movement. So, I’m submitting it 15 years late, but consider it submitted. This is my first use of the tweak tool in this series.

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Olive branch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #peace

Olive branch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #peace
Olive branch by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #cc #design #peace

This is an olive branch, which in certain religions represents a peace-offering, but I like to think that has become somewhat universally recognized as such. It’s a simple execution in Inkscape — I used the pencil tool set to shape: triangle in to create the branch, and set to shape: ellipse I used it to create the leaves. So, if nothing else, I hope you find some peace today. I just began a two-week vacation on Monday, and so far it’s been quite peaceful. đŸ™‚

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173 of 365 is a cloud with silver lining in #inkscape #illustration

Cloud with silver lining
CLoud with silver lining

So this is another case where I saw a photo and thought about how I could recreate it in Inkscape. In Inkscape, I created a blue sky rectangle, then using the ellipse tool, I created a small circle in white. Using the circle with the spraypaint tool in single path mode, I created a random line of overlapped circles across the page, then used the node tool to take the bottom halves of the circles away.  I extended the ends of the path to the bottom of the page. I duplicated the cloud shape and made it gray, and again in near black. I applied some blur to each of the cloud shapes and gradients where appropriate. Finally, using a bird dingbat font (Birds of a Feather, http://www.dingbatdepot.com/details/BirdsOfAFeather), I created the soaring eagle you see there to add context and reference to size. Hope you liked it!

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A bowl of noodles by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #food #illustration

A bowl of noodles by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #food #illustration
A bowl of noodles by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #Inkscape #food #illustration

My daily sketching friend Paul recently made an inspiring bowl of noodles at http://adailydoodle.wordpress.com/2010/06/01/33-a-bowl-of-noodles/ and it caused me to envision a similar image in Inkscape. I created the bowl using the ellipse tool, converted to path and tweaked. I made the noodles with the pencil tool set to shape: ellipse. I created the chopsticks with the rectangle tool, converted to path, and tweaked. Thanks to Paul for the inspiration, and thanks to you for taking a look!

 

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168 of 365 is a self portrait with my thoughts in #Inkscape #design

Self portrait with my thoughts

This was simple to do, and something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I wanted to have a stark self portrait with an explosive element up top to indicate my thoughts and feelings. I imported a photo of myself and a fountain into Inkscape, bitmap traced them, and then arranged the nodes in such a way as to connect the two images. I won’t go into the different fountains, explosions and other images I tried, but I will say at one point there was a lotus coming out of my head. đŸ˜‰

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165 of 365 is an apology to all of you in #Inkscape #design #sorry

An apology
An apology

I don’t have an excuse. You all deserve better. I know we’ve had this conversation before, but I promise you I’ll try to get more sleep tonight and the next night and so on. Let’s start over today. Right now. This moment is new for us. Really. Zzzzzzzz.

Also, this is a response to Dan Wadlinger who recently asked me to create a grunge styled sketch, and while I have some others in the silo, this was especially inspired by him. I used a rust texture in conjunction of the letterforms to create a rough looking overlay in an urban grunge style. Thanks, Dan!